My name is Porter and I am the project director for the creating Healthy
Communities Program at the Cincinnati health department one of our programs include
. Monday and the whole goal and idea of mentoring Monday is to have.
Staff as well as sit down and talk about healthy eating staff and students have
lunch together and they talk about healthy living healthy eating and other topics
that might plague assume throughout the day including bullying are possibly
self-esteem issues partners include the healthy Monday national office the
Nutrition Council Cincinnati health department the heart at the Cincinnati
Children's Hospital Alliance for healthy. Try to help the creating healthy
communities program. A group of students with and what have
lunch with the principal and have
a conversation because they help us to become better people in the future and we
talked about our goals as well as healthy eating healthy living. Now with
a few testimonials from Cincinnati Public School at Evanston Academy.
One of my favorite is that when we sat down with the kids really do not know what
some of the fruits are and I love being able to enter different kinds of foods to
the kids different kinds of fruits and vegetables that they have never even tried
like squash or are just. Ugly truths that they've never seen before and even some
of the prison I found in my life there's
a combination of different things and these kids really have no idea and. I want to
be able them to be able to go home and share that with their parents something this
age that was different at school that they can share family my favorite experience
with. Sitting with the kids and eating and. This is the only
opportunity I had during the day really at any time to talk. About food
and so I really enjoyed talking with them about their eating habits listening to
stories that they have about. What they like to eat and what
they don't like to eat.
I think it's important to the kids at least have the knowledge to make healthy
choices you know whether the advice that I share each week or not they still have
a better understanding of
a healthy choice versus an unhealthy choice in their everyday life you know when
most choices are available to them and also the program offers incentives for
employees who do participate in that like the WANNA style or sort of the new card
program and the free lunches nice to go out well the first time that I participated
. You know it was an opportunity to connect with some students who I felt
really could have used an additional kind of. Push during the day
and the second time it was just kind of to reconnect with those kids because I work
with. So many kids from the day it's nice to have some continuity with specific
heads and I feel just
a little extra positivity during winter and. I
love having. Fun times having a good sense of humor
a meal us to be fun and happy times it's not a it's not
a serious. Play. As enjoy your food enjoy
different kinds of foods try different things and enjoy the conversation that. I
like. That they give us an opportunity to do this if they give us an opportunity to
eat with the kids and you know they gave us so of course as
a staff member you know I'm more of the only. Thing that just
the opportunity that. They give us that we can actually go over first and then talk
to the kids about whatever it is that they want us to talk to them about that we.
Have
a full plate of whatever they want to see. How they set it up. So
they make
a really easy to. Teach that. I
don't have
a better understanding altogether of what students can do and have options to do it
once and I think that is
a direct result of the program the kids have the knowledge to make better choices
in their everyday life and. Whether they choose to make that choice or not they
have the knowledge to know is it a good choice or is it
a bad choice so I think that's the most important.
Made connections with kids who would always be you know would always get along but
. Children who might otherwise not. And I'm hoping
given the fact. That they are enjoying having an interaction with
a teacher in
a different setting I'm kind of seeing teachers are people too and not just the
person who told you what to do. Thank
you for watching and if you're interested in being
a mentor please visit the website below for more information.